A refined eatery
The Uffizi has announced plans to open a restaurant in the 19th-century building known as the Reali Poste in the coming months.
“This won’t be yet another restaurant, but an addition to the museum experience,”
commented Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries.
“As well as Tuscan fare, the restaurant will also serve meals from the various regions of Italy, just like the artworks in the museum.”
The wing will also maintain its function as an exhibition space, displaying a selection of the gallery’s works on a rotation basis.
Self-portrait gallery
Anyone who has had the privilege of walking through the Vasari Corridor will recall that it housed part of the Uffizi’s collection of 1,800 self-portraits, an ensemble that began in the mid-16th century). Since the corridor’s closure for renovation in 2016, these paintings have been relegated to storage, but they are now set to see new light. Once the Vasari Corridor reopens, it will boast updated lighting and air conditioning as well as being fully accessible for visitors with mobility issues. A single ticket will provide entrance on the ground floor of the Uffizi before proceeding over the Ponte Vecchio to the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace. Opening date still to be announced.
Crane-free photos
A culminating moment in the lengthy expansion of the Uffizi Galleries will be the removal of the crane that has graced the Florentine cityscape since 2006. The “Uffizi Crane”, or gru in Italian, appears in so many photos of the city that the humorous Instagram @gruinflorence was created to commemorate it. This may be the death of the Instagram account and the start of a new era of crane-free photos of the city, which means that the gru might be gone by December 2023.
